The Liberal Democrat candidate for Brighton & Hove reveals the advantages of maintaining the UK in the European Union and has challenged the Labour Party to avoid any exit by the end of January. In this interview, Beatrice Bass also explains the steps to make British society less unequal.
What are the benefits of the United Kingdom staying in the European Union?
The benefits of EU memberships are too numerous to list. Most importantly, we benefit from free movement of people, freedom to provide services and freedom to set up establishments in all EU member states, and we enjoy frictionless trade without customs duties or declarations. The EU gives us the right to live, work and study in 28 EU countries without hurdles. The UK benefits from the invaluable contributions EU citizens make to our economy. We have 65,000 EU citizens who work for our national health services, including one out of ten doctors, and 13,000 teachers from other EU countries – our public services would struggle without them. The three freedoms are also vital for our hospitality, financial, legal, IT, communications and creative industries which are key industries in the UK and which depend on EU citizens working in the UK on the one hand and British citizens being able to provide services and exchange data within the EU on the other hand. Our universities and research centres further rely on EU wide research projects and data exchange. The UK appreciates the peace and prosperity the EU brings and its international work in tackling the climate emergency, upholding human rights and fighting crime (although human rights are enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights which is not EU legislation – but the EU contributes to standing up for these rights). This is why the Liberal Democrats are committed in our fight to stop Brexit and retain the benefits we have as a member state of the EU and as EU citizens.
How do you intend to reach the majority of the voters who voted for Brexit?
The Liberal Democrats aim to fix the problems that led to Brexit in the first place. We calculated that staying in the EU will save the UK a £50 billion remain bonus which can be invested in tackling inequality. All in all we will invest £130 billion in building infrastructure, including a £50 billion regional rebalancing program whereby we grow jobs and opportunities in the regions that have been left behind. Brexit will not fix the problems that led to Brexit – tackling inequality and building a brighter future will.
Lib Dems are available to support Labour Party if it´s necessary to prevent Brexit in late January?
The Liberal Democrats will do anything we can to stop Brexit. Labour on the other hand refuses to back Remain. The Liberal Democrats have tabled 17 motions in Parliament to hold anotherr referendum, but the motions did not pass because Labour did not back them. Labour currently wants to negotiate their own Brexit deal – this is a risky strategy that brings further uncertainties. The question therefore should be, will Labour join the Lib Dems in our fight to prevent Brexit?
Why there has been some political disagreements with Conservatives in the last years?
Do you mean within the Conservative Party? I cannot comment on the Conservatives as it is not my party, but most disagreements arose in relation to Brexit. The Conservatives could not agree amongst each other what kind of Brexit they want – and they still don’t agree amongst each other, which is why the UK is in this mess. Many of their promises were based on lies and unrealistic goals. But instead of setting out a viable plan, Conservative leaders continue their empty rhetoric with simplified and polarised messages without taking into account real impact studies or recommendations.
The government should be primarily responsible for helping small business owners?
The government should be responsible for helping anyone who needs support, be it self-employed people, entrepreneurs, workers, small and medium sized businesses etc but they should also provide a balanced framework for big businesses to do well. The Liberal Democrats value equality and we want to provide everyone with equal opportunities to thrive and achieve what they want to achieve no matter what background. We do have good policies that will help small and medium sized businesses though, such as providing start up allowances and expanding the British Business Bank to provide fast growing businesses with equity capital so they can expand further. We also provide mentoring programs which will help small businesses grow and we support growth in green industries and in the tech sector. We will further prioritise small to medium sized businesses in the rollout of hyper-fast broadband.
Music artists in Brighton & Hove should have the same kind of support?
Musicians and artists will benefit from the Liberal Democrats’ policies to further creativity in education, our commitment to provide more rights to self-employed people such as paid parental leave (as many musicians and artists are self-employed), and for our fight to stay in the EU. Musicians depend on the right to work in the EU where they can go on tour and earn an income through playing shows. Especially up and coming artists would struggle if they had to apply for visas in order to tour the EU.
Why has the British economy failed to eliminate all social inequalities?
The British economy isn’t the only economy that failed to eliminate inequality – the problem is prevalent on a global level. Many economists have written about the flaws of capitalism, and governments are slow in implementing changes. The Liberal Democrats will empower people with more rights, more shares in profits and also a reformed taxation system whereby we increase corporate taxation, abolish capital gains tax allowance, introduce taxation on assets by way of example. We also promote employee ownership whereby staff can request shares in their companies, introduce more worker representatives on company boards of companies over 250 people, and ensure more gender equality, with at least 40% of women on companies boards of FTSE 350 companies. We will also extend equality legislation that requires companies to monitor gender, BAME and LGBT+ employment and develop a plan to tackle BAME inequalities. We will extend shared parental leave and provide free childcare from 9 months which will support working parents. More diverse leadership will ultimately steer towards a more inclusive and equal society.
What are the challenges for United Kingdom in the next years?
To fight inequality, fix our broken economy including tackling homelessness, our schools and health care emergency and to grow green jobs – all while also preparing the UK for automation and making the UK carbon neutral at the earliest possible date. A big challenge will be to remove the toxic aggressive political rhetoric and hold political leaders to account for lying and misleading the public – there has been too much abuse by high profile politicians. We need to find a way of dealing with increasing fake news and hate speech. And all but not least, build an inclusive culture in the UK whereby communities are strengthened and people interact respectfully and tolerantly with one another.